Dead To Me

“Try,”he said.

“I can’t,” I said. “Clothing is a hard thing for me to get a reading from.”

“Don’t give me that,” he shouted, knocking away several flying books. “Remember when I hit you at the Antiques A

He wasn’t taking no for an answer so I threw my concentration into the strip of cloth and prayed that a book didn’t catch me in the temple while I attempted to pull a vision from it.

I thought of how Co

I wasn’t sure how far back in time my mind’s eye was taking me, but I could see Cyrus sometime back in his past carrying a bucket full of building supplies and tools through the Black Stacks. It was hard to tell what aisle he was walking in, but I hoped it would give me some clue as to where he was going now. I needed some kind of visual clue to orient myself. I caught a small sign along one of the rows of books.

M.

I snapped myself out of the vision. “Head toward theM ’s!” I shouted and dashed off to the right. I plowed my way through fallen books, made two lefts, and then another right before I led Co

We must have been on the right track, because as we continued forward, the intensity with which books were throwing themselves at us increased dramatically. I fended off books with such ferocity that I had to make sure I wasn’t in danger of cracking Co

“Again,” Co

I dropped my bat and gathered the piece of cloth in both hands. Concentrating like a kid taking the SATs, I felt weariness set in as I went for my third use of my powers. I hadn’t eaten anything coming into this to boost my blood sugar, and adrenaline was the only thing keeping me going. There was a tiny tingle of co

Abandoning the image, I came back to reality, popped a roll of Life Savers out, and quickly began downing them one by one as we pelted toward theH ’s. I immediately started to feel less shaky. It still took five minutes to clear our way to the bookcase I had seen. My arms felt like they had been digging for hours.

We cleared out a space in front of the bookcase. Once there was room to move, I pulled it away from the wall. Behind it was a hallway that led down a short dark corridor and dead-ended at a door. I pulled out my lock picks, but Co

“Sorry, kid,” he said. “Time is of the essence.”

I prepared to swing at any sign of Cyrus, but when the door fell open, the sight before us caused me to forget all pursuit. We had been prepared for a secret escape route. We were not prepared for a pile of bodies. My arms went weak and the bat fell from my hands.

Cyrus was nowhere to be found. My first impression was that Co

“What in God’s name is going on in here?” Co

I stooped over a girl in her midtwenties and moved her head from side to side gently, looking for bite marks. Despite the lack of vampires in a city like New York, I had no idea what else it could be. The girl seemed barely aware I was in the room. She looked quite gaunt, though physically unharmed. Co

“Look familiar?” he said. “All those broken shards of pottery in the alley that night…”

“They looked strung out,” I said.

Co

“It’s a residue left by the plasmic energy generated from the electrical impulses of a spirit when it’s been confined to a tiny area for too long.”

“Spirits are tangible?” In my dealings with Irene, I hadn’t been able to touch her, but it made sense that there must be some level of corporeality. As Co

Co

“If these jars are here and the residue is here,” I said, “where the hell are the spirits?”

One of the bodies near my feet stirred, rolled over, and resettled on my shoes. I stepped back gingerly, careful not to disturb anyone in the process.

“That’s what I’m getting at,” Co

I stared blankly at Co

Co

“Sounds ghastly,” I said.

“Ghastly?” Co